i would have been ok if we stuck to our guns given we thought there was tampering. this action makes it look like someone didn’t think this out before making the decision to eliminate Vandurbuilt from consideration. we do have triple digit iq’s steering the boat here …. right?

NCAA is top-down . . . UMD complains to ACC, they call SEC, then the NCAA investigates. The whole “blocking Vandy” thing becomes moot if DOB/JF exchanged texts or something “beyond a greeting” because the FIRST thing that will happen is DOB becomes ineligible if he goes to there.

So the mystery of why UMD football needed to volunteer to be a punching bag for the last week or two remains. But at least going forward, they’re in the right spot.

This is exactly how it should have been handled from the start. You believe there was tampering? Then file a complaint and let them handle it.

Expect more articles bashing RE and KA for mishandling this. It better include some props for doing the right thing here as well. They knew the timing of this wouldn’t very good but they did it anyway. Give them credit for it.

I’ve been torn on this topic

But I keep coming back to this…

If kids are gonna follow Locks here from New Mexico, there is no reason we should stop a kid from wanting to play for Franklin

And I know there’s a bunch of layers to that and possible tampering (on both sides, mind you) and etc.

But that’s what I keep coming back to

More Stefon Diggs please

I bet Danny doesn’t end up at Vandy. With the whiff of improper contact and Vandy being Vandy, I think the AD tells Franklin to back off DOB.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7601712/maryland-terrapins-coach-randy-edsall-gives-danny-obrien-full-release

The staff needed time to see what the best course of action was on the transfer of DOB and decided that limiting his choices was the best option initially. Had they not limited his choices and DOB decides to transfer to Vandy, it would look incredibly petty for Edsall to suddenly cry tampering and he would have been castrated – by the media and fans.

Now that he has removed the limitation for DOB and others, he knows that they won’t transfer to Vandy because there is a fire behind the smoke and it would have left a stain on the players. He is protecting them in a back-handed way while sending a strong message to Franklin to back off.

It is certainly easy to question the motives or decisions of Edsall after the fallout has taken place. He would have been questioned no matter which course he chose. I don’t think he was in an easy position at all with this one. Terps fans are in an uproar because it was DOB and the transfer count is ratcheting up. The media is eager to join any feeding frenzy, no proof required – just blood in the water. Edsall is the bad guy. The boogeyman for all of our ills.

Granted, he has not had a good year. I liked Ralph, but our program was growing stagnant. We have had a pretty lousy run of coaches since Bobby Ross and are growing impatient. The school has made any number of fundamentally poor decisions since the Ross era ended, but Edsall has only had a year and not an easy one. Patience, please. We will know in a couple of years whether he is the right guy or not.

Terps have been mediocre for 2+ decades (with a good season mixed in here and there), it’s not like we are going drop from being a perennial top 10. If he is the right guy, the climb to the top will be worth it. If not, the fall – not so far.

Going into 2011, the Terps had been to 4 bowls in 5 years. 6 of Fridge’s 10 years had the Terps in the top 3 in the ACC or their division.

Fridge was the only UMD coach to win an ACC title since Ross (who had a losing season his last year, btw, and won a much easier ACC).

Both Ross & Fridge coached 4 different “top 25” UMD teams.

I think there’s a pretty fair way to fall. When UMD has a non-exceptional football coach the team REALLY starts to stink, and NO UMD football coach has ever come back from a first year like Randy’s to be a success. We’re squarely in Vanderlinden territory right now.

all beyond the reach of the current program . . . so there’s that . . .

Bobby Ross did a great job and is a great coach – but Fridge was a Terp for twice as long, you can make the stagnated argument, but you could also argue the Terps were up and down – which is what you’re going to get when you’re competing with far fewer resources than your opponents (i.e. what Fridge was dealing with).

Bottom line, there’s – in my opinion – a VERY long way down from bowl eligible to 30+ point loser to Temple. We’re talking about getting passed by about 2/3rds of FBS teams . . . It’s a much shorter drop from top 10 to top 25 and pretty unfair to call the rest equal

Me too!